Akko Kagari voice actress Megumi Han is hinting that that Studio Trigger may soon announce Little Witch Academia Season 2 (or Little Witch Academia Season 3, if you are an English Netflix watcher). Even the official website has been dropping hints that a new anime project is in the works. But why does Netflix already list a second season if it’s not yet come out in Japan?

Netflix initially left English anime fans hanging from their broomsticks by only streaming 13 subbed and dubbed episodes, but, fortunately, that wasn’t the true ending! They labeled the second cour as the second season and made international audiences bubble and boil a while. Thankfully, the Little Witch Academia “Season 2” release date on Netflix came sooner than anyone would expect, which was good for LWA fans wanting more of Akko and friends.

The second bit of good news is that director Yoh Yoshinari of Studio Trigger is already talking about plans for Little Witch Academia Season 2, including a possible spinoff based on the Night Fall story. The franchise is also branching out into other areas with an LWA video game.

The Japanese Ritoru Witchi Akademia started life as a 2013 original anime short produced by Trigger. The anime was later streamed with English subtitles on Netflix and a second movie, Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade ( Ritoru Witchi Akademia: Mahō Shikake no Parēdo), was released in 2015 with a boost from Kickstarter. There’s also a Little Witch Academia manga series published by Shueisha that is up to two volumes as of this publishing.

Little Witch Academia Season 3 Vs Season 2: Japanese And Western TV Schedules Collide

How do you define a TV season? Sometimes concepts become lost in translation, but in this case, North America treats TV seasons differently from Japan. English audiences are used to TV seasons referring to a continuous run of a series while the Japanese literally match up TV seasons to the four weather seasons. In general, the year is divided up into winter anime (January–March), spring anime (April–June), summer anime (July–September), and fall anime (October–December). An anime season that runs for more than these three-month, 13 episode units is referred to as having multiple “cours.” For example, My Hero Academia Season 2 continued airing with a second cour in July of 2017, but that was not considered a third season.

The situation is further confused by how Netflix localizes content in comparison to Hulu and Crunchyroll, which attempt to simulcast anime on a weekly basis. Netflix Japan did, in fact, release the Little Witch Academia anime on a weekly basis while North American audiences were set up for binge-watching. However, only the first cour came out for English Netflix watchers while Little Witch Academia Episode 25 aired on June 26, 2017, in Japan. English-speaking fans did not catch up until August 15, 2017.

There are also issues with title labeling. Earlier in 2017, Netflix aired several episodes of OVA (Original Video Animation) labeled as The Seven Deadly Sins Season 2 even though technically it was an interlude between major story arcs that was released already in Japan. The same issue occurred with the current LWA anime season, so the second cour was called Little Witch Academia Season 2 on Netflix. This means Japanese audiences will be calling the “true” second season Little Witch Academia Season 2 while Netflix watchers would consider the next unreleased story arc to be Little Witch Academia Season 3.

Akko using Shiny Rod. [Image by Trigger/Little Witch Academia]

Little Witch Academia Season 2 Release Date

When it comes to the second cour of the first season, Netflix made the official announcement at Anime Slate 2017. The final 12 episodes, which are labeled as the second season, became available on August 15, 2017. For some other anime Netflix has changed the season labeling to conform to Japanese standards, but as of January of 2018 Netflix still lists two seasons as available on their website.

When it comes to the production of the real Little Witch Academia Season 2, anime production company Trigger has not announced anything official, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel is confirmed. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when, or if, the LWA Season 2 air date may occur.

In September of 2017, Trigger may have hinted at their true intentions because the official website for the series now redirects to a web page that refers to the “1st” anime. Trigger still has not confirmed their intentions, but if there are no plans for a “2nd” season then why make the changes to the website?

On January 8, 2018, Akko voice actress Megumi Han decided to tease followers on Twitter by suggesting that a major announcement is coming up soon. First, she celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Japanese release and then stated she would receive an opportunity to “meet” Akko again.

“I will make an announcement again soon,” Megumi tweeted out.

Even if the second season is confirmed in early 2018, anime fans will likely have to wait at least a year or two due to the busy production schedule of studio Trigger. During the recent Anime Expo 2017, Trigger announced four new anime projects: Promare, Gridman, Inferno Cop Season 2, and Darling in the Frankxx (which is being co-produced with A-1 Pictures). To put things into perspective, Trigger announced LWA Season 1 as their “next major project” at the 2016 Anime Expo and episodes started airing about six months later. Assuming history repeats itself for LWA Season 2 at the 2018 Anime Expo, the earliest possible Little Witch Academia Season 2 release date is probably in 2019.

Little Witch Academia Spinoff And Spoilers

Great anime are often based on a manga or light novel as the source material. In this case, LWA is original anime, so any Little Witch Academia Season 2 spoilers are limited to what the creators have said publicly. We do know that the main Little Witch Academia character Akko is going to be attending the Luna Nova Academy for at least three years. Similar to Harry Potter, each story section could cover a year’s worth of story events.

Trigger director Yoh Yoshinari is best known for his work as a chief key animator for Neon Genesis Evangelion, but he’s also worked on Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann, and Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt. The LWA anime was his first time producing a full-length anime, and he was also involved in the original character design.

Akko and friends. [Image by Trigger/Little Witch Academia]

Despite having released two LWA movies, Yoshinari thought it best to start over from the beginning with the TV series.

“The previous ones only had what was needed for the story and didn’t really explain the world of Little Witch Academia. So, I thought it would be easier to understand the world if it started from the beginning,” the creator explained in an interview with Manga Tokyo. “I used to decide everything by myself, but there are some things I need to leave to the other staff this time around. You can’t make a story in 30 minutes if you don’t establish the world and setting.”

In LWA, Akko is the sorcerer’s apprentice who acts without thinking. She only became a witch because she idolizes a performer named Shiny Chariot and hopes to emulate the magic show in real life. Unfortunately, this means Akko has unrealistic expectations that are based on “mahou shoujo (magical girl) stuff.”

“Akko’s like someone who joined the industry out of passion but without actual technique, so she can’t draw clean lines for in-betweens,” Yoshinari explained in a 2013 interview with Animestyle. “Yet she has that egocentric confidence about being able to draw good keyframes despite that.”

During the 2017 interview, Yoshinari made it clear that he was used to fully expressing characters within a short amount of time. With the anime, he could slowly build the characters over the course of the TV series, but even then he had to make cuts. For example, the characters Amanda and Jasminka came from the short movie Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade but even the anime season could not develop them as he hoped.

“I really did think about many settings and backgrounds for Amanda and Jasminka and I wanted to make a story about them,” the director said, according to Manga Tokyo. “However, the story focuses on Akko so I couldn’t work on it that much. There are so many things I want to do, but there’s not enough time to do them.”

According to Yaraon, the director does want to do Little Witch Academia Season 2, and he hopes to focus on building up other LWA characters. It was hard enough to fit Akko’s story into 25 episodes, so Yoshinari desires to delve deeper into the history of Diana Cavendish and American Amanda O’Neill with the next season.

In addition to Little Witch Academia Season 2, the director wants Trigger to eventually produce an anime spinoff series focused on the witch Shiny Chariot. Ursula Callistis played a significant role in inspiring others, and Yoshinari hopes to develop the story separately.

The Night Fall book series. [Image by Trigger/Little Witch Academia]

Yoshinari would also like to produce an anime inspired by a side story mentioned in the TV show itself. Similar to how Harry Potter spawned Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, the Night Fall (or Naito Foru) books that appear in the anime could also be adapted into their own anime. The plot revolves around a science teacher named Belle who accidentally time travels into the Middle Ages by entering a mysterious portal. There, Belle meets a handsome vampire named Edgar. Although this plot sounds like the setup for a Twilight knockoff, the main story focuses on the time-traveling adventures of the pair and how they change world history.

Unfortunately, in the latest interview, director Yoshinari does not give any hint about a generalized time frame for the Little Witch Academia Season 2 release date. However, it’s obvious the creator wishes to continue the story, so we’ll just have to hope the Trigger director gets his wish!

[Update January 12, 2018] Added information from Megumi Han and clarified issues related to season labeling.